...a photoBook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things 'in themselves' and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book...
- Dutch photography critic Ralph Prins

donderdag 24 september 2015

Probably The Best PhotoBook of the Year 2015 COPYRIGHT / ARCHIEF Sanne Sannes Photography

To open the new cultural season, Kahmann Gallery presents an exclusive presen tation of vintage and unique works by the legendary Dutch photographer Sanne Sannes (1937-1967) in the exhibition Sanne Sannes – The Enduring Legend. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Saturday the 19th of September, during Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam and will be part of the official programme of the fair.

Sannes remains one of the most captivating photographers of the 1960’s, having produced an outstanding body of work in the mere eight years he worked as a photographer, until his untimely death at the age of 30. His oeuvre is mostly built up of countless photographs of female nudes. Women were his favourite subject and an endless source of inspiration. In a nearly obsessive way, he photographed them during ecstatic sessions, often in the nude, recording their most intimate moments. This intimacy was emphasized in out of focus and underexposed photos; Sannes always worked with existing light and a hand-held camera. He wasn’t afraid to experiment with his work; he used close-ups, crops, scratched and painted on his negatives, exposed prints multiple times, the list goes on and on. Sannes felt no qualms about using these ‘wrong’ methods or techniques while making his images. He received no formal education as a photographer, he was trained as a graphic artist and painter. He was free from the formal and technical restraints that imposed other photographers and he didn’t feel the need to be precious about the process of making a photograph. In the end, it was the emotion and atmosphere that Sannes wanted to show with his work that was the most important to him.

During his lifetime, Sannes’ work did not remain unnoticed by the art world. His work was exhibited at the Groninger Museum, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and even the prestigious George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, featured his work in a group exhibition in 1963. Publishers also noticed Sannes’ intense images; in 1964 his work was published alongside the poetry of famed Belgian writer Hugo Claus (1929-2008) in the book Oog om Oog (Eye for an Eye). Sannes also worked as a commercial photographer, though he dreaded the fact that he couldn’t live of his art. It was on the way back from commercial assignment that Sannes crashed his car against a tree. He was killed instantly, his passengers, which included his assistant Gerrit Jan Wolffensperger, were badly injured.

After his death, Sannes’ work fell into obscurity for a number of years, but the last couple of decades has seen a renewed appreciation for the boundary-pushing nature of his photographs. His works has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries all around the world, including the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Foam Amsterdam and the Institut Néerlandais Paris. Sannes’ work has been included in many national and international collections, both private and museum, including the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum and the Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam.

The new monography with the work of Sanne Sannes, Copyright/Archief, published by Hannibal, in collaboration with the Rijksmuseum, will be available at Kahmann Gallery.

After seeing a book of photos, Frodo Terpstra became captivated by the life and work of photographer Sanne Sannes, who died in a car accident in 1967 at the age of 30. Who was this man who took experimental, grainy erotic pictures of women? Sannes's photos suggest a degree of intimacy between the models and their photographer. Was he a playboy, some kind of James Dean of photography? To find answers to these and other questions, Terpstra visits relatives, old friends, models and possible loves from Sannes's past. Sannes's brother Rob owns his complete photo archive, but he isn't very communicative about Sannes. He can't seem to answer the question of who his brother actually was. Sannes's college friend Martin didn't know him very well, either. He was more closed than a cocoon." In the voice-over, Terpstra wonders if the pictures tell us something about his inner life, and if the myth of the sex maniac is really appropriate. In between the interviews, we see black-and-white images of Sannes's work and Terpstra divulges his findings and philosophies about who Sannes was and what the key to his work might be. The film is a result of the IDFA scenario workshop, which Terpstra won in 2004.